More than a century has passed since Mr. Taft founded our school. While the world and the school have changed dramatically, his fundamental values endure: work hard, without regard for public acclaim; develop all your talents: academic, artistic, and athletic; and most importantly, give of yourself to others.

“Our Admissions Committee seeks prospective students who will, in equal measure, embrace all that it means to be a Taft student—the rigors, the fun, the commitments, and the rewards."Peter Frew '75, Director of Admission

More than a century has passed since Mr. Taft founded our school. While the world and the school have changed dramatically, his fundamental values endure: work hard, without regard for public acclaim; develop all your talents: academic, artistic, and athletic; and most importantly, give of yourself to others.

“Our Admissions Committee seeks prospective students who will, in equal measure, embrace all that it means to be a Taft student—the rigors, the fun, the commitments, and the rewards."Peter Frew '75, Director of Admission

Alumni Spotlights

Gabe McMackin ’94, chef and owner of The Finch, a restaurant in Brooklyn, wasn’t planning to “shoot for the stars,” when he opened. “My goal was to play with food and to create a neighborhood restaurant that straddles the line between formal and informal service,” he says. Read more about The Finch and McMackin’s journey to being awarded a Michelin star.

After working for notable chefs in New York City, Peter Van Der Mije ’98 opened Osteria Leana, a chic, casual Italian restaurant in Oyster Bay on Long Island in 2016. He’s successfully established a place that is small, local, and accessible for diners craving a city experience along the North Shore coastline, with easy access to excellent fresh produce and seafood.

Luisa Bonachea ’00 never imagined that she’d combine her legal training with her love of wine in a fulfilling career. Read about her work as an intellectual property attorney based in Napa Valley who specializes in trademark and copyright law for wine-industry clients.

Leslie Herrlinger Lanahan ’73, whose son, Lynn Gordon “Gordie” Bailey Jr., died of an alcohol poisoning at the University of Colorado after a fraternity initiation ceremony in September 2004, has made it her and her family’s mission to bring awareness about alcohol poisoning and hazing in order to save lives.

After a long career in the textile industry, Doug Ellis ’54 decided it was an ideal time to return to his passion of flying. Ellis is a volunteer pilot for Angel Flight, which offers free transportation to patients in need of medical treatment and who are too sick or injured to drive a long distance or fly on a commercial jet to a hospital.

Dockwa, cofounded by Tyler Kneisel ’99, makes reserving boat slips a snap. Since its launch in 2015, tens of thousands of boaters now find, reserve, and pay for moorings in real time, using the award-winning Dockwa platform on their computers or the free mobile app.

Since 1999, owner Billy Himmelrich ’82 has been running Old School Bakery in Delray Beach, Florida—known for its fresh bread with a delicious combination of taste and texture—and providing bread to top restaurants, hotels, and country clubs in Southeast Florida, along with donating unsold bread to the Palm Beach County Food Bank and helping raise money for hunger relief through events.

Nick Firestone ’84 has loved racing since age 3. At 51, he’s a professional race car driver who has raced among the most acclaimed drivers in the world and has been racing since the late 1980s. Firestone’s niche is go-karts, and he regularly races in the U.S. and internationally.

Read about the goat farm and creamery owned by Max Sandvoss ’98 in upstate New York and his transition from actor to experienced farmer and cheesemaker. He and his brother, Trystan, are committed to the entire natural process with grass-fed animals and organic pastures. First Light sells its cheeses at farmers’ markets and to stores and restaurants across six states.

For more than 40 years, Dr. Joyce Poole ’74, the 2017 Horace Dutton Taft Alumni Medal honoree, has been a passionate voice—a protector and defender—of elephants, dedicating her life to their conservation and welfare.

Sleep expert Emerson Wickwire '91 studies the effects of what is known as “blue light” emitted from electronic devices on the body’s natural circadian rhythms, and discusses the importance of getting enough sleep.

Nick Halmos '97 has created a way to efficiently grow food in urban environments by combining hydroponic systems with automation and live data. He established Cityblooms, a micro-farm technology company that can safely and sustainably grow fresh food in a range of climates and everywhere from rooftops to parking lots.

As the Peabody Essex Museum’s H.A. Crosby Forbes Curator of Asian Export Art, Karina Corrigan ’88 is charged with overseeing the world’s most comprehensive collection of fine and decorative art made in Asia for export to the West.

As a perfumer for the leading privately owned fragrance company in the world, Ashley Wilberding Balavoine ’90 gets to create the scents that, whether we realize it or not, are in products that most of us use every day. Balavoine has to keep abreast of the trends in fragrance, which are very connected to each culture, and vary by country.

The diversity of Klein’s role as a project engineer for AMEC Foster Wheeler, an international engineering and project management firm specializing in energy and infrastructure, keeps him excited about being a civil engineer.

Persley put his education career on hold to become a stay-at-home dad to his daughter, Camilla, and now chronicles this experience on his blog, The Brown Gothamite, in addition to being a fatherhood advocate.

As assistant director for the Commercial Spaceflight Federation (CSF), Kinney supports CSF’s engagement with government entities, industry experts, and entrepreneurs for opportunities in the commercial space industry.

Read about Lizzie Macaulay-Lewis ’98, who has recently been helping document archeological sites in the Middle East that are endangered due to conflicts, especially in Syria. Her research focuses on the material culture of the Roman, Late Antique, and Islamic worlds, and Islamic architecture.